[Ads-l] the bee's knees (1920) (UNCLASSIFIED)

MULLINS, WILLIAM D (Bill) CIV USARMY RDECOM AMRDEC (US) william.d.mullins18.civ at MAIL.MIL
Fri Oct 19 21:49:48 UTC 2018


CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

> 
> Even earlier that year, in the Feb. 8, 1920 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, there are references to a vaudeville show called "The Bee's
> Knees" (presented by Joe Laurie, Jr.), but there's no indication of whether the show used it in the superlative sense or for some other
> fanciful purpose.
> 
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24668442/the_bees_knees/
> https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24668460/the_bees_knees/
> 

_New York Dramatic Mirror_ Feb 14 1920 p 268 col 4
"Joe Laurie's New Phrase
It was little "pintsized" Joe Laurie who made popular in vaudeville the phrases "Let 'Er Go " and "What I Care?" and he now looms up with a new one that he sprang for the first time while playing a western Orpheum house. It is "Bee's Knees." Just what Joe means by it hasn't been explained but it comes in handy in his new act."
CLASSIFICATION: UNCLASSIFIED

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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